Many modern day electronic devices include electronic displays to output (and in some cases receive as input) visual information. The underlying display technology of these electronic displays may be various. For example, such display technologies may include light-emitting diode displays (LED), electroluminescent displays, plasma displays, liquid crystal displays (LCD), organic light-emitting diode displays (OLED), and others. The light output from these electronic displays can have various color temperatures ranging from warm, mostly yellow to cool, mostly blue temperatures, etc. The light may also be mixed.
Bright light with a rich amount of blue light (like daylight) serves as a trigger to the human body to be awake and alert, whereas the absence of bright and blue light during the evening triggers the human body to go into a more restful state, partly due to the release of sleep inducing (or soporific) hormone. Bright or blue light at night can block transition into a more restful state at night and can block the release of sleep inducing hormone.
As more time is spent viewing electronic displays, especially those that are relatively bright and have a rich amount of blue light, the release of a soporific hormone may be interrupted. For example, if a user is exposed to a bright display with a rich amount of blue light late into the evening, the user's body's release of a soporific hormone and transition into a more restful state might be compromised or fully blocked due to that light exposure. As a result, the user may have a difficult time falling asleep. This problem is compounded when the difference between the brightness level of the electronic display and the ambient light is high.